Spent a couple of hours composing a letter to be sent to the management here re hiring a new IT director, and getting some of my colleagues to comment on it. Took the car out to get it washed. Worked on the Studebaker model a bit.
At 4:40 Scott & June pulled in, we got in my car and off to SFJazz to see Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite. A more satisfying concert than last night, mainly because it was one 90 minute set instead of two 40 minute ones. I would have happily listened to Marcia Ball for 90 minutes. Anyway, a good time with nice people.
Went for the standard walk in the morning and felt fine. The next item on my calendar was to move the car up to the street level, preparing for a brisk 5pm departure. However about 1pm I got an assignment from the tech squad: Dave T. (yes, another David, to go with David G and David M) was having trouble with his iMac.
This iMac was just being glacially slow, taking forever to respond to the simplest click. I couldn’t find a cause, except that a couple of things I saw strongly suggested that it was having repeated disk errors and recovering from them. I spent an hour fooling with it. Finally I said the only solution I know is to get another computer (this one was from 2015). An hour later Dave T. called me and said he had ordered a new computer. I think this one, similar to Lois’s of a few days ago, could be fixed if its hard disk was given a low-level format and the OS reinstalled. But I’m not sure and that’s a lot of trouble to go to. Even when it has a full backup, as this one did.
At 4pm was the A/V committee meeting for the month, to allocate events of August to volunteers. Then we talked about what is likely to come from the recent (two days ago) resignation of Vanessa, the staff IT director.
At 5pm I met in the lobby with Sandy to leave for a concert in the City as SFJazz. This is quite an adventure, driving into town, parking in the public garage, eating in a restaurant, attending a concert. Heavy stuff!
The concert was two acts, C.J. Chenier (son of a famous Zydeco accordianist), and Marcia Ball, described this way. I had expected these two New Orleans musicians to perform together, but not so. Chenier was first, played from 7:30 to about 8:40, then there was a 20 minute break while they cleared the stage of everything but the drum kit, and set up for Marcia Ball’s band. Then they came on and played. This was not the greatest format. For one thing, they try to finish by 10pm, and this limited each act to an hour. It also caused me some stress as I had heard the garage I used closed at 10, and I was picturing my car being locked in if they ran over.
In the end we got to the garage about 10:05, along with several other people, and one exit was already blocked but another was still open.
I am going again tomorrow night with Scott and June for this double bill, but notice this one has an ampersand in the title (Bishop & Musselwhite) where the one today had a slash (Ball/Chenier), also it is described as a “duo performance”. So I am hoping tomorrow the two stars will be on stage together.
The music tonight was pretty loud, and although I didn’t mind it, I did notice some ringing in my ears as we left the building. Tomorrow I will pick up a package of earplugs to share out.
Not much to do today before the 3pm tour that was rescheduled from yesterday. Worked a bit on the Studebaker engine and then looked at the dash. To my surprise, they had cast microscopic little numbers and hands on all the dials. You could barely make them out. But I tried putting some dilute black paint on them and then rubbing the tops of the marks with the tip of a toothpick, to uncover the white plastic. I’ll have to do some more of it but it did bring the numbers out.
At 2pm Wanda knocked on the door and I grabbed my docent bag and a hat and headed out. The custom tour group was a group of high-school level students on a summer computer camp. Most were from Italy. I’d thought from the name of the group, CodeEng (coding in plain English) they would be from England, and I had boned up a bit on early British computers. But it turned out they were mostly from Italy, only one Brit, so that was wasted effort. Anyway they were mostly attentive and seemed to enjoy themselves.
When I got back at 5 I found that Wanda had locked my door. Fine, only I had not taken my keys with me, only the car key. So I had to call the front desk and have a facilities guy come and let me in.
I didn’t go for a walk first thing because I was focused on the tour I was to lead at 11:30, for which I should leave about 10:45. So I had breakfast and changed into my docent clothes and fiddled around, and left at 10:40 without a last look at my email.
Turns out, when I got to the museum, that in an email received about 10:20, Jesse the front desk boss had notified me that the tour was rescheduled for tomorrow. So I had had a nice drive for nothing. Back at CH I changed to regular clothes and then went for my usual walk, ending with picking up a prescription at CVS.
I am interested in this tour group, described as “eager young coders from England”, and I do have time to take the tour tomorrow at 3.
Next up I was to be the AV person for a talk at 7:30, which I thought was happening in the auditorium with a live speaker, so I was planning to go to the auditorium about 6 to set up. But I talked to David M. first, and between us we worked out that oh no, this is a zoom only event and the speaker is in Minnesota. Which makes it a much simpler job, just running a zoom meeting, no problem at all. I created the meeting but David M. is much more used to being the host for these things, and enjoys it, so he took over and ran it very nicely.
Woke up determined to take care of some “bidness”.
In the middle of the night it had occurred to me that I hadn’t heard anything from Erik Klein, the organizer of the Vintage Computer Fest, where we will be selling books weekend after next. Last year he had sent a detailed email to all exhibitors early on. Went into the email looking for his email address and luckily my search terms turned up the letter I had expected, which had arrived two days ago and gone into spam!
With that in hand, I wrote an email to a list of FOPAL people asking for help in organizing transport for 25 boxes of books, and other details for the weekend.
Then I picked up an info sheet Patty had given me, recommending a Fiduciary firm that she and others here have been using for their trusts. The Family Trust such as I have, is a very convenient and sensible way to manage an estate and avoid probate. However, when the remaining trustee (which is me) dies, there has to be a Successor Trustee who will be responsible for winding up the estate and distributing the proceeds as spelled out in the estate documents. Currently my successor is Dennis, followed by Marian’s cousin Darlene and Marian’s nephew Marc. All good and decent people but two are already retired and one isn’t that close and none are interested enough to have the considerable legal burden of an estate dumped on them.
Hence a professional Fiduciary, a legally trustworthy person or agency who will act as successor trustee. To get a handle on this I emailed Bob Sullivan, head partner in the financial management company that has been overseeing The Nest Egg for 30 years. He wrote back almost instantly (really, under 10 minutes) saying basically, it is an excellent idea to get a professional fiduciary as successor, and he knows the people Patty recommended and likes them. So later today I will call them.
Then it was time for the writers meeting, where I had a submission to read for once.
After lunch I took care of more stuff. When I saw the doctor last week, she referred me to dermatology for a routine look-over, and now I finally got around to calling for that appointment — which turns out to be in October. Skin doctors are busy.
Then I called the Fiduciary company. Someone will call me back tomorrow to make an appointment.
In the evening I did my laundry, including ironing my chinos and my red docent shirt. This relieves the time crunch I had, trying to do my laundry and get to the museum for an 11:30 tour which I am scheduled for tomorrow.
Out first thing to register campers for Tara’s camp. Talking to Eileen, the director of basketball operations, she said that the announcement of USC and UCLA leaving the PAC-12 was a complete surprise for everyone. Her opposite number at UCLA told her, they only found out when a reporter for the NYT called the head coach that morning.
Anyway, we did our thing and the half-dozen volunteers shared a free breakfast at the cafe on SWBB’s tab.
Then directly to FOPAL to process 6 boxes of mostly, useless stuff: two high-value and about a dozen books shelved for sale.
Leaving FOPAL I stopped at Piazza’s groceries to get a loaf of bread and some drinks. Outside in the produce display were some “heirloom cantaloupe” and I suddenly had a yen to eat cantaloupe. I bought one and brought it home, and my lunch was a half of a cantaloupe eaten out of the shell. Delicious.
Diddled around the rest of the day doing nothing special.
By 8:30 I had watered the plants and read the paper. Ho-hum. I finally left early for my docent tour, the noon slot. I had a big crowd, 30 or so, and most of them stuck with me to the end and gave me a nice hand. So that was good.
I had to do a little planning for the upcoming week. Tomorrow I have to scoot out of here super early to be at Maples Pavilion before 7:30 to help with registration at Tara’s third and final basketball camp of the year.
Wednesday morning I have my laundry slot, but have to start it early so I can get my red docent shirt washed and ironed in time to make an 11:30 am tour. I am looking forward to this tour, for “20 enthusiastic young coders”. Wednesday evening I have to do A/V for a speaker.
And I just worked out the timing for Friday’s trip to the city to hear Marcia Ball at SFJazz. Show at 7:30; restaurant reservation at 6:15; need to leave Channing house at 5pm to be sure of making those times. And that again on Saturday.
Today, other the docent tour, I didn’t do much other than peel the masking off the studebaker.
Little masking error there on the cowl. Also a little touchup on the front seats. Oh well.
Sitting around with the newspaper and the TV news on, I noted that there was an arts festival in Oakland today. Well, why not? I had nothing else planned. Dennis didn’t want to go, so off I went alone. First I drove down to Midtown and had breakfast at the PA Cafe. Then on to Oakland.
The “Art and Soul” fest turned out to be a pretty average art and craft faire with music.
There was a strong Black Culture flavor to the arts and crafts which was a nice change. The weather was about as nice as it could be.
I was back home by 2pm. Through the afternoon I finished spraying the Studebaker. Then about 5:45 I set off on foot for Rinconada park, a bit less than a mile away, to hear a free concert by a Santana tribute band. Just out the door, I was accosted by Stew and Kathy driving by, headed for the same concert, so I didn’t have to walk after all.
I got myself a nice taco plate from a food truck and listened to about the first half of the concert. Here’s a view of the event.
Still just beautiful weather, about 72F and clear skies. What a lovely day it was.
Took a walk in the morning but felt sub-par and cut the length by half. Felt off-color the first half of the day. No temperature. After an hour long nap at 1pm I felt better.
During the morning I sent emails related to the A/V committee, scheduling the next meeting. Managing, bleh. I think I am stuck with this gig for another year, since I instigated the Heritage Circle grant request for more equipment. I am informed by a reliable source that the grant request has been, or will be, approved. That won’t be announced officially for months yet, then there will be the process of revising the spec with the vendor and overseeing the installation. Maybe this time in ’23 I will be able to quit.
I also refreshed the exhibit on my picture rails. This has kinda turned into an obligation instead of a pleasure.
Everybody in the Tower has art on their hallway walls. It’s a kind of rule: you own the wall outside your apartment and can post anything you want. Most people hang a few favorite images and then forget about it. When we had to clear out of the 6th floor for the upgrade, there was some hoo-hah about whose pictures were whose, and it turned out that more than a few of the paintings and prints belonged to people who were long dead, nobody ever took them down.
I thought I had a great idea: put up a couple of picture rails and I could put up a changing exhibit of my fave fotos. I’ve got the high-quality printer, and the software and know-how, to make good quality prints. I stocked up on cheap plastic frames and high-quality large-format paper (11×14, 11×17). I got some compliments on the pics, too. There are people who get their exercise by walking all the halls, and they noticed the changing pics.
So the months roll on, and every time I come back to my apartment I’m thinking, how long have these been up, is it time to change them? I’ve changed the selection several times and now it was getting old again. So yesterday and today I printed up six 11×14’s of sculptures. So there’s a theme. They’re good for at least a month. I don’t think I’ll change them until September.
I also masked the parts of the Studebaker that should remain gray, and then sprayed the maroon. Well, first I sprayed clear. I got this great tip from a YT video: after masking, your first coat should be a light clear coat. Then if there are any leaks, anyplace where paint can crawl under your masking tape, it will be clear that does it, and it sets and seals the leaks. So I sprayed clear varnish and then the maroon. Here’s the main body.
The wrinkly rough parts are masking tape. The maroon is not as dark as I hoped, it’s more like a deep cherry red. Well, too bad. I’m going with it. After the paint’s had a day to get hard I will carefully peel the tape off and should have a lovely two-tone paint job. The windshield wipers and door handle are also masked, with a liquid “frisket” product that rubs off.
The paint has a matte finish when dry but that doesn’t matter. After I have put on enough coats and it is hard, I will very lightly sand it, and then it gets about 3 coats of clear gloss. And that gets polished. The car will shine, one day.
I had signed up to work today at the Shustek center in Milpitas. That meant a 9:15 departure. Before that I needed to tidy the apartment ready for Wanda to clean it at 2pm.
I also rearranged some pictures on my picture rails outside. I had been thinking about what to put up there. It’s time-consuming to make nice prints and I hadn’t gotten around to making new ones in some time. But today I decided that I would have time tomorrow to make some new prints, so for now I just put up some old flower pics.
So, off to the East Bay. I got there in good time and settled down in the car to continue listening to a podcast until it would be time to go in. Naturally I looked at my email and found — an 8am note from Rachel, in charge of the Shustek workers, apologizing for waking up sick and calling off the day’s work. So I’d had a 20-mile drive for nothing, and now a drive back. On the other hand, my day was now free.
When I got back there was email from Jessie, who runs the front of house staff at the museum, pleading for docents today and later in the week. So, well, my day was free, why not? So I signed up for the noon tour. I had an hour before I’d have to leave, during which I printed one new picture.
The tour was a bit of a disappointment, I had only 5 people, one of whom had to leave early. I tried out a new sequence of presentation which went ok.
Back home I printed another picture, and began masking parts of the Studebaker for spraying the maroon color.
Codgerville 